June 12th Primary Results: Almost all the usual suspects win, including money

With a few notable exceptions, the candidates expected to win in the primaries on Tuesday did, and the candidates that raised the most money almost always ended up succeeding. Democratic women continued their rise to power in national elections, with women winning 48 percent of the Democratic primaries this week, including all four of the top Democratic House targets in Virginia. With Trump critic Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) losing his primary and unapologetic Trumpist Corey Stewart winning his Senate primary in Virginia, it was a reasonably good day for the president.

The California Fair Political Practices Commission is holding a meeting at 10 a.m. today to discuss whether campaigns should be able to accept bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as political contributions.

Though staff members have conducted extensive research, FPCC commissioners have yet to formally address the issue. The commission's legal division concluded in a recent memo that cryptocurrency contributions do not violate the state's Political Reform Act — a 1974 initiative that created the commission to regulate campaign finance, lobbying activity and conflicts of interest.

Rep. Doug Lamborn is not a moderate on the abortion issue. He has a 100 percent rating from the National Right to Life Committee, which has endorsed his re-election bid, and a 0 percent rating from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. But someone is financing attack ads that claim Lamborn voted to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for the nation’s leading abortion provider. Republicans in Colorado will have no idea who that someone is before they cast their votes in this month’s competitive primary in Colorado’s 5th Congressional District.

Clean Up Congress PAC officially formed in late May, and began running ads against Lamborn last week on two Colorado Springs network-TV stations, according to Federal Communications Commission filings. It’s spent $96,000 on those ads so far, and hasn’t reported supporting or opposing any other candidate. “Doug Lamborn voted to fund Planned Parenthood with more than $500 million in taxpayer dollars,” the group’s ad declares, referring to an omnibus spending bill that maintained the status quo of Planned Parenthood funding. Clean Up Congress is also running a pair of websites devoted to attacking Lamborn on his omnibus vote and other charges.

There are all sorts of indicators you can consult in trying to anticipate the results of upcoming elections. There are handicapping experts like those at Cook Political Report or Sabato’s Crystal Ball that go race-by-race, and big-picture analysts like those at FiveThirtyEight that project probabilities of this or that happening. There are all sorts of political-science models. And there are prediction markets where political junkies put their own money on the line.

But there’s one specific physical location you might want to look to for signs of what is likely to happen in the battle for control of Congress this year: K Street in Washington, the legendary home of lobbying firms. And as Politico reports, they are hiring up on Democrats right now:

Wilbur Ross Admits He Kept Stock In (Another) Company He Previously Claimed He Divested

Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross arrived in Washington, D.C., in February 2017 as one of President Trump’s richest advisors. After years of piling up assets, the private equity mogul assured ethics officials and members of Congress that he would divest nearly everything. And on November 1, 2017, he said he had, signing his name directly below a warning that “any intentionally false or misleading statement” was “a violation of law punishable by fine or imprisonment, or both.”

Ross’ statement, nonetheless, was false. Although he claimed to have divested the assets, he in fact held onto an interest in aviation giant Air Lease Corp. And a short position in a bank called Sun Bancorp. And at least $10 million worth of shares in his former employer Invesco.

WASHINGTON
The nation’s largest voting equipment vendor has for at least nine years coaxed state and local elections officials to serve on an “advisory board” that gathers twice annually for company-sponsored conferences, including one last year at a ritzy Las Vegas resort hotel.

The arrangement could compromise the integrity of the officials' decisions — or at the very least, the optics of those decisions — at a time when they are faced with efforts by Russia and perhaps other nations to disrupt the upcoming mid-term elections, ethics and elections experts said.

In May, a new nonprofit group called Speech First sued the University of Michigan in federal court over its speech code, which it claims has a “chilling effect” on young Trump supporters.

Speech First wants the university to ban any investigation into campus harassment, bullying, and “bias-related misconduct.” It argues that these terms are defined so broadly that they restrict the free speech of campus conservatives. The university’s speech code, the group contends, belongs in “communist China.”

Why are Common Cause lobbyists fighting Wolf-PAC? I would think they would be aligned. Sleep overs and hanging out. Perhaps even being kissing cousins playing post office. Yuck.

I would hate to watch that TYT video. It's too bad they don't come with more text than just a title. I tried watching one of them once but there's this guy ... . I can't stand that guy. He used to have a TV show. I didn't watch.

The attack on Common Cause for our opposition to a constitutional convention by Cenk Uygur is both misguided and inaccurate. We agree with The Young Turks host and Wolf PAC founder on the need to overturn Citizens United, but we believe that we should use the path that has always been used in passing amendments to the U.S. Constitution: Congress passes the amendment and then sends it to states for ratification. Uygur’s call for an Article V convention is a very dangerous way to try to achieve that goal. The overwhelming majority of the democracy reform community is in agreement with Common Cause in opposing a constitutional convention, recognizing that even one convened for a single issue could very easily become a “runaway convention” capable of a massive overhaul of the Constitution and, worse still, one that would be driven by deep-pocketed special interests, like the Koch brothers. A constitutional convention is not the silver bullet Wolf PAC believes it to be, instead it is a potential Pandora’s box that poses a grave threat to our democracy.

[snip][end]

BTW, I agree with KH Flynn here. This is absolutely a bad time for a Constitutional Convention. People paying attention have noticed it has been a Koch Brothers' agenda item for quite a while. They know with the current balance of power in state legislatures, a convention could lead to a bunch of amendments that basically do lots of things liberals would hate.

Common Cause is right.

We may not be able to get Congress to pass a Constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United right now, but I think it should remain a goal to get it done that way.

The revolving door between Congress and K Street is well known in Washington. Plenty of U.S. representatives and senators leave office and join lucrative lobbying firms as quickly as they can. Some members of Congress are married to lobbyists, but thanks to 2007 legislation, those spouses are barred from lobbying their partners’ offices.

It’s a big problem “for a special interest—for a monied interest—to have a mechanism to write a big check straight into the family bank account of a sitting senator, to directly and dramatically increase the income, the personal wealth of a sitting senator,” said former Sen. David Vitter, a lobbyist with Mercury Public Affairs, when introducing his amendment in 2007 to ban lobbyists from directly lobbying their spouses’ offices. “That absolutely happens whenever you are going to allow spouses of sitting senators to lobby.”

The White House on Monday announced that former Senator Jon Kyl will play the role of “sherpa” for President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Justice Kennedy on the Supreme Court.

Kyl, who retired from Congress in 2013, is now senior of counsel with Covington & Burling LLP, one of the top lobbying shops in Washington, D.C. As sherpa, Kyl will guide the nominee during the confirmation process, advising them on language and accompanying them as they meet with members of the Senate who will vote on their confirmation.

So, Mr. Sackman, let me thank you for writing a letter to the editor. And let me also make my usual refrain about separating goals from methods. I think you and I share a goal of ending Citizens United. I too want that in the worst possible way.

I think Common Cause has a good argument for why an Article V convention would be a bad idea. I also believe they've put up an excellent article on why they think so, and part of it is a recognition of who else is pushing for an Article V convention and they are bad hombres.

Mr. Sackman, I suggest you read this. (Of course, unless you are actually reading this board, my point is really rhetorical to everyone else.)

And keep one other point in mind: perhaps Wolf-Pac and Common Cause have the same goals (ending Citizens United) they just disagree on the methods (Article V Convention), ... that can happen to people on the same side, and it can be a productive debate as long as everybody remembers that.

The attack on Common Cause for our opposition to a constitutional convention by Cenk Uygur is both misguided and inaccurate. We agree with The Young Turks host and Wolf PAC founder on the need to overturn Citizens United, but we believe that we should use the path that has always been used in passing amendments to the U.S. Constitution: Congress passes the amendment and then sends it to states for ratification. Uygur’s call for an Article V convention is a very dangerous way to try to achieve that goal. The overwhelming majority of the democracy reform community is in agreement with Common Cause in opposing a constitutional convention, recognizing that even one convened for a single issue could very easily become a “runaway convention” capable of a massive overhaul of the Constitution and, worse still, one that would be driven by deep-pocketed special interests, like the Koch brothers. A constitutional convention is not the silver bullet Wolf PAC believes it to be, instead it is a potential Pandora’s box that poses a grave threat to our democracy.

[snip][end]

BTW, I agree with KH Flynn here. This is absolutely a bad time for a Constitutional Convention. People paying attention have noticed it has been a Koch Brothers' agenda item for quite a while. They know with the current balance of power in state legislatures, a convention could lead to a bunch of amendments that basically do lots of things liberals would hate.

Common Cause is right.

We may not be able to get Congress to pass a Constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United right now, but I think it should remain a goal to get it done that way.

I'll say! Calling for an Article V convention is a Libertarian right wing nut talking point going back as long as I can remember. The Libertarian right wing would have an rural advantage which Democrats would not be able to overcome. Wyoming would be equal in force to California, Idaho to New York.

ASHINGTON – Secret donors financed more than four out of every 10 television ads that outside groups broadcast this year to influence November’s high-stakes congressional elections, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Kantar Media data.